| I guess I'll have to be the adult objective authority on this issue, no arguements allowed. I understand this issue from the inside and from the outside, as a 55 year old authority figure--a veteran of 30 years teaching high school, and as that 18-23 year old kid in the late 60s-early 70s, who did something like 50 trips on LSD, mescaline, peyote and psilocybin. I became diabetic at the age of 13, so all of my 50 trips were done while I was on insulin.
This stuff IS potentially dangerous, no way around that--it is VERY heavy. I did months and months of preparation prior to my first trip--and always always always had a person to stay around and keep us safe--we always called this person, "Capt. Trips". This person was always an experienced tripster himself, and would keep us from doing those stupid, careless things, keep the atmosphere positive to steer us into good trips, and make sure my diabetes was safely managed. Some of my trips were major life events for me, huge turing points, revelations of the inner content and potentials of life. Some were cartoons, amusements, divertissments, nothing more. A very few were frightening descents into chaos and confusion. But they all integrated into the flow of my personhood, into the whole that fused from all of the "stuff" that happens to you. They were spiritual in overall impact, almost mystical when taken as a whole over the period of years when I was doing it. They served as a jumping-off point from which I pursued other spritual paths during the rest of my life, so in that sense, they afforded me a first foothold into my adult faith, practices and beliefs. In that sense, my psychedelic experiences were an important part of my becoming, of my self-realization.
Do I recommend LSD? Absolutely not--it's a risky business, in my opinion, especially today, when there IS no real LSD anymore--back then, we often had pure, lab-quality substances, very reliable. Today, everything is from the streets, and so risky from the start. Also, there isn't the understanding of the dynamics of the psychedelic trip--how to "do" it correctly--it's an art, and it involves a fair deal of preparatory work--it's NOT to be undertaken lightly.
I wish you good fortune in your journey, friend--go safely, with your eyes open and your heart pure.
Michael | 
